QUALITY OF WORK LIFE, CAREER DEVELOPMENT, PERSONAL

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International Journal of Applied Psychology 2013, 3(3): 38-44 DOI: 10.5923/j.ijap.20130303.02

Quality of Work Life in Indonesian Public Service Organizations: The Role of Career Development and Personal Factors Zulkarnain Amin Dept. of Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Sumatera Utara, M edan, 20155, Indonesia

Abstract This study investigated an integrative of Quality of work life in public service emp loyee. This study was

involving the role career develop ment and personal factors to pred ict outcome in quality of wo rk life. Questionnaires were administered to 429 wh ite-collar wo rkers employed at five public service organizations in Medan, Indonesia. The results found that career development was related to quality of work life o f emp loyee. Furthermore, personal factors such as; emp loyees' age, sex, educational level, length of service and marital status were correlated significantly to quality of wo rk life. These findings appeared to confirm, career develop ment and personal factor could enhanced quality of work life of employee. The imp lication of this study is that it does contribute to understanding of the ways by which the management can endeavor to increase quality of wo rk life on the needs of the employee and the needs of the organization .

Keywords Quality of Work Life, Career Develop ment, Personal Factors, Public Serv ice Emp loyee

1. Introduction Indonesia is developing to achieve a developed country within the next decades. This country still faces many problems in order to achieve its intended purpose. Co mpanies and government have invested vast amounts of time and effort in recent years in policies and init iatives to improve work life balance. The effo rt to improving work life balance, both of government and private sector have been made some various efforts. These efforts include providing a salary increase, paying an annual bonus, giving grace to the brilliant workers in jobs and providing various facilit ies for workers. But these efforts are still not able to fulfill the will of some workers, because each worker has a different assessment in assessing their respective interests[1]. A s a d ev elo p in g co un t ry , In d o n es ia n eeds s o me productive workers. The existing problems at the level of both organizations in the non-business or business is that they have people who are intellectually capable o f good, but often a good intellectual ab ility is not man ifested in the achievement of work for the organization where they work less support to be ab le to realize their potent ial[2]. The fulfillment of individual’s and organizational object ive are in d epend ent bu t t h ey are lin ked by th e mo t iv at ion . Ind iv idu als mo t iv ate th ems elv es t o wo rk hard fo r t he * Corresponding author: [email protected] (Zulkarnain) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ijap Copyright © 2013 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved

achievement of personal goals which is only possible when the organizational object ives are also met[3]. The existence of various changes that occurred in the organization in fluenced to workers behavior. Workers feel threatened, anxious, and uncomfortable because of the potential influence changes in working condition. Instability of employ ment status and income level allo wed to work pressure, job dissatisfaction, strike, skipping, changing jobs and so on can affect and cause phase decreased quality of work life (QW L). Improving the QWL is an important thing because the contribution can increase organizational effect iveness and reduce the negative behavior of workers[4]. In several emp irical studies, the implementation of the quality of work life led to increased comp liance and emp loyee satisfaction, increase confidence, improve relat ionships between workers and supervisors, imp roving safety and health. In addition, can reduce labor complaining, reduce the conflict between labor and management, improve productivity and strengthen the organization's position in market co mpetition[5]. The basic objectives of an effective QW L program are imp roved working conditions (main ly fro m an emp loyee's perspective) and greater organizational effectiveness (mainly fro m an emp loyer's perspective). Positive results of QW L have been supported by a number of previous studies, including reduced absenteeism, lower turnover, and improved job satisfaction[6];[7]. QWL contribute to a co mpany's ability to recruit quality people, it also enhances a company's competitiveness. Co mmon beliefs support the contention that QWL will

International Journal of Applied Psychology 2013, 3(3): 38-44

positively nurture a mo re flexib le, loyal, and motivated workforce, which is essential in determining the company's competitiveness[8];[7]. Other studies also found positive associations between progressive human resource management practices, such as training and staffing selectivity, and common firm performance measures[9]. Quality of work life in general could be co mpensation systems, social relat ions and career development[10]. So me literature also states that environmental factors (such as physical, security and work conditions), relationship factors (such as relationships in the working g roup, the relationship between workers and management), demographic factors, social change, technology and labor markets is important related to the quality of work life[2]. The good working conditions and opportunities for growth are the main considerations in the quality of work life o f workers[11].

2. Literature Review 2.1. Career Devel opment and Quality of Work Life Quality of work life does not only affect job satisfaction, but it will also affect life satisfaction, such as family life, social life, financial and well-being of workers[12]. Quality of work life as a concept wh ich are life satisfaction as the highest level, and job satisfaction in the middle [13]. Job satisfaction can be obtained fro m work satisfaction with wages, coworkers, and supervisors. Quality of work life is an important thing. So me studies mentioned the fact that a happy worker is a productive worker; a happy worker is a worker who devoted and committed to the organizat ion[14]. The quality of work life also aims to make work mo re attractive and provide benefits to workers[15]. There are three distinctive elements of quality of work life related interventions: (1) a concern about the effect of work on people as well as organizational effectiveness, (2) the idea of worker participation in organizational problem solving and decision making and (3) the creation of reward structures in the workp lace which consider innovative ways of reward ing emp loyee input into the work process such as gain sharing[16]. Worker will stay in the organization depends on how they see their future in the organizat ion. Worker will stay in the organization when he/she felt that work designs provided by the organization useful for wo rk and careers[17]. The existence of a clear career advancement within their working lives are also profoundly influenced a worker to survive in an organization. At the beginning, career activit ies are conducted by the organization, but the career development will be effective if carried out jointly between workers and organizations[18]. The emp loyee satisfaction on the career development was strongly influenced by level of the workers’ need. The organization should offer a pattern of career development to fulfilling these workers purpose[19]. Pattern of career develop ment offered by organization to the aim of fulfilling the emp loyees need, not necessarily be perceived

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as such by the workers[20]. In other words, acceptance of career develop ment workers will depend on how they respond to and perceive this career develop ment. Workers' perception of career develop ment is in fluenced by the interaction between the values, hopes, and purposes of workers conducted through work experience. Enco mpasses the career development practices used within the organization such as placing clear expectations on emp loyees on their expectations and succession plans. Quality of work life is linked to career development and career is evolving fro m such interaction o f individuals within the organizations. Career arises fro m the interaction of individuals with organizations and society. Career is not primarily a theoretical construct but is used in meaningful ways, given meaning and it creates meaning and also experience. Careers are typically defined as a ‘sequence of work roles or a sequence of a person’s work experiences over time[1]. Career development is a process and activities to prepare workers for positions in the organization, wh ich will be done in the future. Career develop ment one needs to be done because a worker not only wants to get what belongs but expect change, progress and opportunities to progress to higher. So me of the things that encourage career development within a worker are: first, the desire to develop themselves according to their intellectual abilities; second, to obtain greater compensation than usual; the third to get freedom in the job; fourth, to guarantee safety at work and the last to pursue achievement in work[21]. According to[22], it is impo rtant to realize that career planning and development process involves assessment of workers and organizations that will enhance success in one's career and also can reduce negative behavior and improve the quality of workers in the organizat ion. Thus career development program which will be able to meet organizational needs and the workers needs. The form of career develop ment can be done by the organization in three ways, namely through career education, providing career informat ion and guidance[23]. To drive a profitable career develop ment for organizat ion and worker, organizations need to conduct and development training programs, mastering the law, provide feedback to workers and to build a cohesive working environ ment to enhance the ability and willingness of workers in imp lementing career develop ment. Feedback on career develop ment efforts needed to achieve career goals of workers, ensuring that workers are not promoted will be considered for further pro motion[24]. 2.2. Personal Factors and Quality of Work Life The QWL also associated with personal factors. Personal factors such as age, inco me, education level associated with the quality of work life[25];[26]. In addition, some studies showed that marital status, educational level and age correlated with work involve[27]. Another studies reported that length of service associated to QWL[28];[29]. Gender, length of service and education correlated with quality of

40

Zulkarnain Amin: Quality of Work Life in Indonesian Public Service Organizations: The Role of Career Development and Personal Factors

work life co mponents such as work satisfaction, supervisor support and work environ ment[30]. Meanwhile, sex, age, education of and marital status also correlated to quality of work life[31];[32];[27].

3. Research Method 3.1. Participants The sample of current research was the full t ime emp loyees of 5 public service o rganizat ions in Medan, Indonesia. Five hundred and ten questionnaires (including scales of Quality of work life and career development) were distributed among emp loyees. The four hundred twenty nine questionnaires of the employees returned the questionnaires. In this regard response rate was 84.11%. 3.2. Instruments Quality of Work Li fe The instrument was the quality of work life scale designed to some aspects of work life quality[33]. There were so me aspects of work life quality namely; adequate and fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, immed iate opportunity to use and develop human capacities, opportunity for continued growth and security, social integration in the work o rganizat ion, constitutionalism in the work organization, work and total life space and social relevance of work life. The subjects of this study were requested to respond using four-point scaled response options ranging fro m strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4). Higher scores will signify elevated degree of quality of work life. This scale consists of 44 items and the Alpha Cronbach coefficient of reliability is 0.928. Career Devel opment The instrument was career development scale designed using some aspects of career develop ment[34]. There were some aspects of career development namely; the individual's role, supervisory role, and organizational role. The subjects of this study were requested to respond using four-point scaled response options ranging fro m strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4). Higher scores will signify elevated degree of career development. This scale consists of 32 items and the Alpha Cronbach coefficient of reliab ility is 0. 936. 3.3. Statistical Analysis Correlation coefficients were co mputed to examine the relationships between career develop ment, personal factors and quality of wo rk life. A series of regression analyses was used to test the hypotheses of the study.

4. Result

The detail descriptive statistical findings on career development, aspects of career development and personal factor, were displayed in the Table 1, 2 and 3. Table 1. Personal Factors Variables Sex Male Female Age Below 30 Years old 31 - 40 Years old 41 - 50 Years old Above 50 Years old Education Level Senior High School Diploma Bachelor Length of Service 1 - 10 years 11 - 20 years 21 - 30 years Marital Status Married Unmarried

Frequency

Percentage (%)

225 204

52.4 47.6

206 64 115 44

48.0 14.9 26.8 10.3

91 102 236

11.8 13.3 55.0

248 77 104

57.8 17.9 24.2

263 166

61.3 38.7

The analysis of data was using Pearson correlation using SPSS 17.0 for Windows. Pearson correlation showed a significant relationship between career development and quality of work life, r = 0.629; R2 = 0.396, p<.01. It means that the positive perception of career development the higher the quality of work life. In addition, Pearson correlation showed a significant relat ionship among aspects of career development and personal factors with the quality of work life. Overall results seen in Table. 2. To find out the determinants of quality of work life, a stepwise regression method was used. Based on the stepwise method used, the three predictor variables were found to be of significance in explaining quality of work life. Overall results seen in Table.3. The five pred ictor variab les are ind ividual role, age organizational role, marital status and educational level. The R-squared is 0.253; it imp lies that the five predictor variables explain about 25.3 of the variance in the QW L. Th is is quite a respectable result. As depicted in the coefficients table (Table 2), the estimates of the model coefficients for β 0 is 62.494, β 1 is 1.592, β2 is .178, β 3 is .581, β4 is 3.265 and β5 is 1.379. Therefo re, the estimated model is as below: Y (QW L) = 62.494+ 1.592 (X1) + 178 (X2) + .581 (X3) + 3.265 (X4) + 1.379 (X5)+ e Where: X1 = Individual role X2 = Age X3 = Organizat ional role X4 = Marital status X5 = Educational level

International Journal of Applied Psychology 2013, 3(3): 38-44

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Table 2. Correlations among variables No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

QWL Career Development Individual role Supervisory role Organizational role Sex (male =1, female = 0) Age Education Level Length of Service Marital Status (married = 1, unmarried = 0)

.629** .338**

.129**

.183*

.120*

.393**

.311**

.225**

.437**

.336**

.138**

.102*

.086

.009

.082

.285**

.215**

-.107*

.049

.100**

.271**

.196**

.047

-.017

-.091*

.113*

.011

.335**

.259**

.199**

-.092

.071

.098**

.178**

.949**

.378**

.262**

.205**

.096*

.047

.048

.250**

.728**

.207**

.672**

** p<0.01, * p<0.05

Table 3. Summary of estimates of coefficients for the model

Constant Individual role Age Organizational role Marital status Educational level

B (Unstandardized Coefficients) 62.494 1.592 .178 .581 3.265 1.379

Std. Error 7.328 .244 .068 .196 1.402 .619

Beta (Standardized Coefficients) .309 .167 .141 .143 .100

Df 5 423 428

F

t

28.659

8.528** 6.629** 2.599* 2.965** 2.328* 2.227*

** p<0.01, * p<0.05; R = 0.503; R 2 = 0.253

5. Discussion Based on statistically analysis, there is a significant correlation between career develop ment and quality of work life. Thus, it can be concluded that the quality of work life of work depends on how these workers perceive career development in organizations. If workers feel that they can develop themselves in the organization, they feel that the organization can fulfill their personal need. Conversely, if workers unable to develop themselves, so the organizations are not able to fulfill their personal need. The results is consistent with the proposed[1];[35], that nowadays people no longer work mere physiological needs, but also require an increase in non-material as a man ifestation of self-actualizat ion in the form o f career develop ment. Career development is all kinds of activities undertaken within the organization in order to imp lement a career p lan that can be achieved the career goals. How the workers perceive their career develop ment may affect to work attitudes and behavior in organizations, because individual perception of a thing that needs is one factor that indicates the fo rmation of attitudes and behavior. There are three reasons that could explain the relation of career develop ment and quality of work life. First, the

effectiveness of career develop ment will be obtained if the career development activ ities carried out jointly between the workers, employers and organizations. Workers, who have a positive perception of career develop ment and supported by the organization, tend to have high motivation to achieve the goals[16]. Thus, workers who are satisfied with the job and his career will be loyal to the organization and work to improve profitability and productivity of the organizat ion. Second, relation of career development and quality of work life can be exp lained. Career develop ment is an attempt to adapt the purposes and objectives of workers with career opportunities available at present and in the future in an organization. Individuals will have career opportunities in line with the offerings provided by the organization[36]. Career develop ment pattern offered by the organizat ion will be accepted by workers as a support for the forward. A good working condition, the support and the opportunity to develop is a major consideration in the work life of workers. Acceptance of career development will depend on how they respond to and perceive this career develop ment. Workers' perception of career develop ment is in fluenced by the interaction between the values, hopes, and purposes of workers, through positive experiences gained during the running of work.

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Zulkarnain Amin: Quality of Work Life in Indonesian Public Service Organizations: The Role of Career Development and Personal Factors

Third, a positive relationship between career development and quality of work life can be exp lained. The organization manages and develops human resources effectively, will have a high level of productivity, high market value and higher profit growth. In other words, these organizations can meet the needs of the organization, shareholders and investors[37]. In addition, the effective of hu man resource management can meet the needs of workers with a variety of ways consistent with organizational capacity. Thus the human resources in the organization will be able to develop themselves in an optimal. Study showed that workers were willing to make sacrifices for the organizat ion, so that the workers will be willing to work and do some effort for the success of the organization. Willingness is only going to grow and develop if the workers believe that the success of the organization is also the success to achieve their desired career[21]. The results of this study reported a significant relat ionship between personal factors and the quality of work life. The results of this study showed that male workers have a high level of QWL than female wo rkers. The female emp loyees have had to overcome more barriers than have their male counterparts. Consequently, it seems reasonable to expect that a perception of inequality can affect female emp loyees’ opportunities[38]. In addition, the older workers and have high education levels also have a high quality of work life. Older emp loyees are better able to balance personal needs and job/ organization than are younger employees. They are more likely to cognitively justify remaining in the organization, as they may have limited alternative emp loyment opportunities and greater cost than do younger employees. As a result, the older emp loyees likely to developed more positive attitude toward their jobs[38]. Employee with greater levels of education experience more growth opportunities, concern with the quality of their work performance than do those with lower level of education[39]; [40]. The results also showed that the length of service significantly correlation to quality of work life. This result is consistent with previous study[41], that showed work experience, is closely linked to the quality of work life. Another study also supports the results of this study[28]. The length of service has a significant relat ionship with the quality of work life. Workers who have a higher length of service have of quality of work life than the new workers. Emp loyees with more work experience have mo re respect for their job and can apply their experience to their job; they were also more likely to enjoy the physical work environment[39]. Lengths of service appear to affect the areas of present job, pay, supervision and coworker. It could conclude that those who have more experience tend to be more satisfied, to be higher performer and more p roductive that those who are new in the organization[38]. Some studies also showed that worker who has been married more ab le to survive in a work environ ment than unmarried. Those who are married and have children have a

higher level of quality of work life as co mpared to the singles[42]. Past researchers have observed that in early stages of their careers, individuals are often willing to sacrifice their personal lives in the interests of their career progression. However, as individuals advance in age to the maturity stage of their career, they have been found to place a greater emphasis on a balance between their work and family lives that individuals place on their family role as they age. Prior research has found that being married leads individuals to give their personal lives priority over their work lives. Similarly, being a parent increases the importance that individuals place on their family role. So me research indicates that a happy family life correlates with high levels of job satisfaction and objective career achievement[16].

6. Conclusions The findings on current study explain that increasing of QWL of public service emp loyees in Medan, Indonesia through improved working conditions and greater opportunities for expression and self-development for participating emp loyees. Organizations can contribute to the development of employees’ sense of coherence by providing informat ion in a consistent, structured, ordered and understandable format. In order for employees to perceive that work expectations are manageable and within their, or important other peoples power, emp loyers should ensure that emp loyees are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, material, instruments and other resources, and that there is a balance in the load of tasks to be handled. Emp loyees should also be given the opportunity to perform work that requires thought and independent judgment. Emp loyees will regard their work as meaningful when a degree of independence and freedom of choice is allowed in the performance of their tasks. Participation in decision making will enhance the employees’ feeling of membership and contribute to the meaningfulness component of sense of coherence. Moreover, the emp loyee should have the freedom to disagree with his/her supervisor, to be able to discuss what to do with his/her supervisor and to act autonomously. The degree of satisfaction in quality of work life is related to the degree to which the individual believes his or her success criteria have been met, especially if the individual p laces great importance on these criteria which include organizational climate, pay, respect, personal growth and family life balance. It can also be concluded from the data, that the individual’s family life correlates significantly with his/her level of quality of work life. Th is further suggests that a successful family life carries over into one’s career and makes one more satisfied with personal achievements. The fact that is worthy of conclusion is the importance of career achievement in quality of wo rk life. In the current context, the emphasis is on income, position and personal growth and opportunity in career mob ility as potential success indicators.

International Journal of Applied Psychology 2013, 3(3): 38-44

7. Limitation of Study The present study has the follo wing limitations. The research was cross-sectional (all the data were collected at the same time), which means that it is not possible to draw conclusions about cause and effect among items based on emp loyee responses. Future longitudinal research is therefore needed to confirm the conclusions drawn by this study. Another limitation is the exclusive use of self-report measures, a strategy often associated with method variance. Sample size fu rther limits the research results in such a way that results cannot be generally applied to public service emp loyees in Indonesia.

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